Functions

of Law
WHY DO WE NEED LAWS?
a) SOCIAL COHESION
- where every member of society acts lawfully in a peaceful and harmonious
manner, whilst considering the rights of other people.
- To achieve social cohesion a society must have laws to:
◦ i) protect the values and rights of society
◦ Ii) establish acceptable standards of behavior and deter unaceptable conducts by
sanctioning those that breach the standards.
◦ Iii) establish institution of governments to make, administer and adjudicates the
law.
◦ iv) provide mechanism to change the law or make new laws.
RIGHTS AND VALUES
There are 3 basic rights we value in society:

A) Individual rights
- These can be broken down further to:
i) civil rights – right to life, freedom of the media, freedom of speech, right to liberty
ii) Economic rights – right to own property, right to work, right to just compensation
for compulsory acquisition of property,
iii) Social rights – right to education, right to privacy, protection of cultural and
environmental heritages.
Iv) Rights to equality – freedom from discrimination, rights of prisoners in war and
institutions, rights of aliens
B) Democratic Rights ; your right that protect your democracy.
Eg right to vote, right to join a political party, right to stand for parliament, right to protest.

C) Legal Rights : your rights when involved in the legal processes and legal institutions.
Eg right to remain silent, right to present your case, right to a fair and speedy trial, right to trial by jury.

ACTIVITY ON SLIDE 5: determine which right do the following examples fall

under? Ie individual right, legal right or democratic right
Example Which Right does this represent?

Georgie does not need to tell if she Legal rights

committed the crime.

Henry VIII decides to have trial by jury Legal rights

Phillip decides to join the Young Liberals Individual rights

Jane buys herself a car Individual rights

Roman gets paid for his 4 weeks work Democratic rights
Donna does not need to tell her students who
she votes for
B) ACCEPTABLE STANDARDS OF
BEHAVIOUR
- A sociedade determina qual comportamento é aceitável e não aceitável.

— Isso é feito pelos legisladores.

- os comportamentos inaceitáveis são colocados em duas categorias gerais: direito público e direito
privado:

LEIS PÚBLICAS: leis que envolvem mais a sociedade. Ex: leis penais, leis administrativas, leis
constitucionais, direito internacional.

DIREITO PRIVADO: leis que envolvem mais as partes individuais. Ex: direito civil e negligência,
direito de família, direito civil, direito contratual.

Em breve, entraremos em mais detalhes sobre o direito civil e o direito penal.

COPIE A CLASSIFICAÇÃO DAS LEIS NO SLIDE 7
 COPY: TYPES OF
LAWS

PUBLIC PRIVATE
LAWS LAWS

INTERNATIONA CIVIL
CONSTITUTIONAL CONTRACT
CRIMINAL L TORTS/
ADMINISTRATI
VE NEGLIGENCE

ACTIVITY: DO THE WORKSHEET ON CLASSIFICATION

OF LAWS.
Classification of Laws Worksheet
Reference:
Classification of laws is to state if it is public or private law.
Branch of law is to state what kind of law eg criminal, contract law, family law, civil law etc.

Private Negligence
Public Crime
Private Contract
Private Civil
Public Administrative
Public International
Public Crime
Private Negligence
Public International
Public International
Public Constitutional
Public
Private Contract
Public Crime
Private Negligence
Why we need to sanction people
for unacceptable behaviour?
PUNISHMENT – the offenders must be punished as a sign of society’s condemnation.

DETERRENT- stop others in society from similar unlawful behavior.

PROTECT SOCIETY – imprisonment of those who offend society’s standard will protect society from
the unacceptable behaviour.

REHABILITATION – the process includes elements of therapy, in the hope of changing their
behaviour.
C) ESTABLISH INSTITUTION OF
GOVERNMENTS
We need laws to create institutions of government such as Supreme Courts, High Court and what they can do.

Eg the Supreme Court Act established the Supreme Court of SA

Eg The Australian Constitution created the High Court of Australia and the rules of how it will work

WHICH INSTITUTIONS ARE INVOLVED IN OUR LAW MAKING PROCESS?

A) LEGISLATIVE INSTITUTION – PARLIAMENT – they make the laws

B) EXECUTIVE INSTITUTION – GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS – they administer the laws

C) JUDICIAL INSTITUTION – COURTS – they adjudicate the laws

ACTIVITY: identify which concepts are EXAMPLES of legislative, executive or judiciary ON

SLIDE 11.
 Judge
Judge
Parliament
Regulation
Executive
Executive
Executive
Judge
Regulation
Judge
Parliament
Executive
D) MECHANISM FOR CHANGING
THE LAW
- The law needs to be able to change as society changes.

- eg the only way to change the Constitution is by a referendum and parliament agreeing to the changes
in the law.

- We give Parliament the responsibility to make laws on our behalf and thus they create new laws when
they see fit.

- If there is ever a dispute, the court will adjudicate and decide based on past decisions such as
precedents.
b) SOCIAL PROGRESS
- Social progress is when laws facilitate to protect the progression of society from one generation to
the next.

Eg Health – ensuring inoculations are available to treat dangerous diseases such as polio,
meningococcal in the hope of eradicating them from the country in the future.

Eg Environmental – making water restrictions occur in order to protect the water supply of a State.
And the future health of the Murray.

Eg Education – making sure youth go to school and get educated so they can have a better well round
life and make better decisions.

ACTIVITIES: FUNCTION OF LAWS WORKSHEETS